Pastor's Corner ~ "Christ's Enduring Presence"

The Gospel story for this weekend is Luke’s version of the story of the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. This story never gets old; there’s always something new and fresh about it; its meaning is timeless and ever relevant.
Let’s first contextualize the story. We have two disciples – downcast, discouraged, hopeless, despaired, traumatized—because of what happened to the Messiah. They probably gave up everything they had just to follow Jesus; they initially thought that Jesus was what they had been waiting for; they spent a number of years following Jesus. Then, Jesus was condemned to death, was crucified and eventually died. They were devastated; they were probably asking themselves: Did we just waste our time following this guy whom we thought was God, the Messiah? They were filled with grief but, at the same time, they were probably thinking – so now, what does this mean for us? What are we going to do after all of this? We already gave up
everything for this guy, and now we don’t know where to begin. We were told in other versions of this story that they decided to go back to Emmaus, to their old city, to their usual life, the place that they had left to follow Jesus. For the two disciples, going back to Emmaus was “to retire from their call to follow Jesus.” Jesus is dead already so let’s go back, there’s no point to follow Jesus; the guy is dead, so they boarded the “Emmaus Shuttle” to bring them back to what is familiar, to the old familiar ways.
But, Jesus wouldn’t let that happen. He meets them on their way and started to remind them of the things that would make them understand why those things had to take place. As Jesus was talking with them, they could feel that something was changing, their hearts started to soften, and they finally recognized Jesus at the breaking of the bread. “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"
My dear friends, like the two disciples, we sometimes experience situations that seem to suggest that God is “dead”, where we don’t see the hand of God working, where we feel like after years and years of following Jesus one suddenly questions: Is there really a point to all of this? If God loves me, if he is the Messiah, why don’t I feel it? And, in these moments of desolation, hopelessness, despair and discouragement, one might also be tempted to go back, to turn our backs from the call and go back to our own version of Emmaus, to pack our bags and just leave. But, God won’t just sit back and let that happen without reminding us how he acted before in our lives; how he put people in our lives that assure us that he is there; that he cares; but, the most important reminder, just like what he did to the two disciples, is the breaking of the bread, the Eucharist. Why? Because in every Eucharist, he is telling us: this is how much I love you. I love you this much that I died for you. And, hopefully, that is a strong enough reminder to keep you hopeful, to keep you going, to keep you encouraged. The two disciples asked Jesus, “remain with us since it is already night” and he did, but he vanished after the breaking of the bread. This tells us that in those moments when we plead to Jesus, “Lord, stay with us”, he is ever present, especially in the Eucharist, in the breaking of the bread. He assured us that in the Gospel story today.
What this story teaches us is that in our difficulties, in our sorrows, in our desolations, in our hurts, the response should not be isolation or exclusion, going back to our old familiar ways but rather, going back to our community. After the two disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, we were told that they immediately went back to Jerusalem. Their response is powerful. They couldn’t go back to Emmaus. They had to re-join the community that was also trying to figure out what the events surrounding Jesus meant. We come here at Mass, carrying our own unique faith, our own confusions, our own sorrows, joys; I preside at Mass with you with my own unique frailties and confusions, with my own version of wanting to go back to my own Emmaus, but we find ourselves coming back to this faith community precisely because in this Eucharist, God continues to reassure us of his presence and, most especially, his great love through his death and his
resurrection. Lord, give us the perseverance and courage to remain in you in those times that we are tempted to go back to our own Emmaus. – Fr. Cary